Robichaux, an editor of the Wall Street Journal's "Weekend" section, covered cable television for the paper from 1989 to 2001. Here he draws on interviews and published sources to produce a well-written account of John Malone. In the early 1970's, at the young age of 29, Malone took over a small cable company on the edge of bankruptcy known as Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCl), which he adeptly turned around and in 1998 sold to AT&T for $48 billion, making it the largest media merger in history. The author weaves an intricate tale of the cable industry and TCI as he reveals the brilliant deal-making strategies that built the largest cable company in the world. A typical strategy would be to swap stock, which defers recognition of profit on the deal whereby taxes would not have to be paid. Using these tactics, Malone acquired hundreds of companies and was viewed as a monopolist, creating a political backlash in Washington that caused him to be called Darth Vader, Genghis Khan, and the Godfather rolled into one. Readable and well researched, this work is unauthorized but was written with Malone's cooperation. Recommended for media collections in public libraries and those interested in the "art of the deal." —Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY (Library Journal, January 15, 2003)